Certification is a court rule administered by the Supreme Court of Virginia to set the minimum qualifications of mediators wishing to be placed on the court list of mediators. The two primary uses for certification are: 1) to select and limit the mediators eligible to mediate court-ordered cases and 2) as a state-granted credential in a field where there are few recognized credentials.

Certification is the "best" available credential for doing these two things, but it is far from perfect. First, there are relatively few cases being referred by the courts. Of the courts in Northern Virginia, only one- the Fairfax Circuit Court - uses the certification scheme as it was initially conceived - as a list for court litigants to go to to select mediators when they were referred or ordered to mediation. And Fairfax is only referring contested custody cases. Other courts, such as most small claims and general district courts and the Prince William Juvenile and Domestic Relations court (JDR) have a program with a mediation provider that organizes the availability of mediators for the cases that are referred from these courts. Because there are so many more mediators who want to work in these settings than there are cases to mediate, these are limited opportunities. All the other circuit courts and JDR courts do not refer cases for mediation.

Second, certification is used as a credential on mediator resumes and advertisements, but is not designed or intended for this purpose. The "levels" of certification are intended to identify qualified mediators for particular courts and this is a confusing system that is not readily understood by the public or even by the courts. Also, there is no uniform national certification or other qualifications standard, so Virginia Certification has limited utility as a credential.